Covered Bridges Could Be A Hit Here

Get Serious!

I have a terrific idea for how the Virginia Department of Transportation, which could use some friends, can get people to like it better.

The idea came to me when I spent a recent week in Vermont.

Vermont is an intensely concentrated chunk of picturesqueness. Those Green Mountains really are green. The main industry seems to be selling maple syrup, cheddar cheese and handmade pottery to tourists, with some Norman Rockwell reproductions thrown in.

But Vermont has one other thing that brings in the tourists:

Covered bridges.

Vermont may be the most covered-bridge-intensive place in the nation. There are more than a hundred of them in that little state.

And people love 'em, just love 'em. They stop and walk through them and photograph them. They're touted in tourist brochures. There are covered bridge tour itineraries. Real aficionados compete to tally the biggest number of covered bridges they've visited.

We got into it, too. There were three covered bridges close by each other in Bennington,Vt., near where we were staying.

We visited all three, one after the other, standing in the hot sun to gaze at these bridges spanning the Walloomsac River. (Rivers in Vermont tend to have names that sound like somebody sneezing.) "Yep, those bridges sure are covered, all right," we said with satisfaction.

That's right -- we have a situation where people are in love with civil-engineering projects.

Right now you may be asking, Why did those 19th-century people put roofs over their bridges, anyway? Well, the practical benefit is obvious:

In the 19th century, where else could a couple find a dark, secluded place to go and neck?

No, actually that was an ancillary benefit. The main reason was to protect the bridge's wooden floor and underpinnings from the weather, so they would last longer.

But now that a covered bridge's main value is as a tourist draw, well ... do you see where I'm taking this?

Virginia has fewer than 10 covered bridges, out in the western part of the state. Not enough.

There's even a Covered Bridge Museum in Vermont. Down here, I suppose we could set up an Interstate Overpass Museum, but it wouldn't be the same.

So how about if the next time VDOT has a bridge project scheduled, they think about, you know, putting a lid on it?

Suppose they put cute wooden roofs over some of those bridges over the little creeks in Hampton. Instant tourist attraction! Heck, build a bunch of them.

You may also ask -- come on, go ahead and ask -- don't picturesque covered bridges have to be old and weather-beaten and built in 1840 by somebody named Ephraim?

Not necessarily. One of these old bridges in Bennington was in poor shape, the plaque there said, so they just built a new replica to replace it in 1989.

Darned if the replacement covered bridge didn't look old and weather-beaten. Maybe they hired professional weather-beaters to give it that look.

Look, if we're going to draw 10 million money-spending visitors to this area next year for the Jamestown thing, like the state tourism people are hoping for, we need to work every angle we can.

I know it's short notice, but with all the history buffs around here, maybe some volunteer labor will offer to help build the bridges. Sort of a Habitat for Tourism project.

Maybe we'll want to start thinking bigger. With modern engineering, we could build the first-ever covered bridge with a retractable roof. You know, like those new sports stadiums.

And for travelers who don't want to get off the interstate: the world's first six-lane covered bridge!